Chipset
Chipset: A number of integrated circuits designed to perform one or more related functions. The term is often used to refer to the core functionality of a motherboard and commonly used for the two large chips on the motherboard besides the CPU. The two chips are called the Northbridge (NB) and the Southbridge(SB), both acting as traffic regulators in the data flow. The Northbridge handles the data flows between CPU, DRAM memory, the graphics card (AGP) and the Southbridge chip.
The South Bridge microprocessor is somewhat slower and takes care of the data flow to the peripherals and integrates controller functions. Power management features are typically integrated in the Southbridge chip.
Courtesy of the French Energy Agency ADEME, Future Electronics project.
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